chapter 09. Elections Inquizitive

The electoral college affects where candidates focus their campaign energies. Match the description of states on the left with whether the electoral college advantages or disadvantages those states in terms of attracting candidates' attention during an election.

Adv: competitive states large pop. states Dis Adv: one-party states

Franklin Roosevelt was very popular during much of his time as president, and other Democrats running for lower offices were able to ride his popularity to positions they might not otherwise have won. This is an example of which of the following?

Coattails FDR was a bit of an exception; generally coattail effects are rare in American politics.

At the start of 2019 there will be a - government, with the - controlling the presidency and the Senate and the - controlling the House of Representatives.

Divided Republicans Democrats

Primary elections reward - positions on issues. General elections reward -positions on issues.

Extreme:Moderate Moderate positions appeal to more voters in the general elections because of the wider variety of ideologies represented among the general electorate. The two-step electoral process influences candidate position taking—first encouraging extremism, then encouraging moderation

This is the three-letter acronym for the agency in the federal bureaucracy responsible for administering election law and campaign finance regulations.

FEC: The Federal Elections Commission has an oftentimes complicated job trying to enforce the various parts of elections law across hundreds of races.

The fundamentals in a campaign include things such as the quality of a candidate's background and how he or she does on the campaign trail.

False fundamentals refer to things such as the economic conditions in the country and the balance of party identification in the district/state/country.

In which ways was Donald Trump different from other major-party presidential nominees in recent years?

He had never held elected office before running for president. He had relatively little ground game on election day.

Which of the following terms describes a candidate who is running for reelection to a position in Congress that she already holds?

Incumbent: Incumbent elections are those where the current officeholder is running to hold on to his or her seat.

Which of the following statements are true regarding campaign platforms?

Political candidates often say little about controversial issues. Campaigns do not give candidates a lot of opportunity to explain complex issues to voters. Candidates tend to write their platforms to appeal to the average voter and therefore try to minimize issues that could make them vulnerable to attack during an election.

Winners of - elections go on to face each other in the - election.

Primary:General The general election is when candidates from the major parties face off to win the position. Primary elections select the best candidate to represent the party in the general election. The winner of the general election is elected to office.

Choose all of the following statements about the 2018 midterm elections that are correct.

The Democrats had an advantage in enthusiasm among their supporters. Many voters weighed their approval or disapproval of President Trump in deciding how to vote in 2018. An unusually large number of Republican incumbents retired rather than run for reelection.

Which of the following statements are correct regarding campaign contributions?

The majority of campaign contributions are offered to politicians the contributor already supports. Campaign contributors get better access to legislators than do noncontributors.

Which of the following statements about the 2016 presidential election are true?

There was a sizable gender gap among voters. Clinton and Trump were among the most disliked major party candidates in the modern era. Turnout proved to be the big deciding factor between the candidates.

Refer to the table below, and select the statements that are correct.

Trump ran a higher percentage of positive ads than Clinton.

Which of the following statements regarding voter ID laws are correct?

Voter ID laws tend to turn away voters who disproportionately vote Democratic. Voter ID laws have minimal influence on preventing fraud.

Which of the following characteristics are true of soft money?

can be used for voter mobilization can be used to promote a specific policy proposal

Which statement is best supported by the figure below?

choiceEven though Congress may be unpopular, members are still reelected at extremely high rates. Reelection rates have consistently been at least 80% and usually higher.

When a voter votes retrospectively, what is that voter basing his or her vote on?

how the incumbent performed on issues the voter cares about Retrospective voting focuses on past performance rather than personal characteristics. Retrospective evaluations make incumbents responsive to their constituents' demands.

which components go into determining a state's number of electoral votes.

one vote for each member of the House of Representatives one vote for each member of the Senate

Rank the following elections, from highest turnout to lowest turnout.

presidential election --> midterm election --> primary election --> caucus

Of the many steps to becoming president, which of the following options happens first?

primary elections and caucuses: The primaries and caucuses help choose the candidate who will go on to the general election. Before the general election, the parties must first select the candidates who will represent them.

Karl votes for a Republican for president and a Democrat for Senate. This is an example of a __________ ticket.

split-ticket: voting is less common than it was in the twentieth century

Candidates are most likely to focus their mobilization efforts on which group?

their own supporters: Mobilizing people who are undecided is difficult and expensive.

In wave elections, one party's House reelection rate is significantly higher than the other party's.

true: Wave elections are historically rare, though in recent times we have had quite a few.

Which of the following are examples of voting based on cues?

voting against Williams because he is the incumbent voting for Smith because she is a Republican It takes more effort to learn a candidate's ideology than it does to interpret a voting cue. Cue-based voting focuses on readily available and easily interpretable bits of information about a candidate.